A Conspiracy is Being Hatched to Dis-member Sikkim

Aug 28, 2000

Category: Tai Situ Rinpoche

New Delhi Aug. 23: A conspiracy is being hatched to dis-member Sikkim from India and have it become a part of Chinese occupied Tibet . The Central Intelligence Bureau, security agencies and senior officers in the Sikkim administration have individually submitted various extensive reports to the central govt., and have delineated Tai Situpa Rinpoche, a Tibetan refugee, as the driving force behind this conspiracy. The ban on his entry into India has been recently revoked by the Home Ministry. It is worth recalling at this instance that Sri Ram Jethmalani, Minister for Urban Development and Employment, has played a pivotal role in having the permission granted to Tai Situpa to move about freely throughout India barring nine states.

The Intelligence Bureau and other security agencies in their reports submitted to the Home Ministry that the former Chief Minister of Sikkim , Narbahadur Bhandari, Rajya Sabha MP Karma Topden and some others are co-conspirators of Tai Situpa Rinpoche . The then Chief Secretary of Sikkim , Sridhar Rao has submitted a report dtd. 24-5-97 addressed to the then Cabinet Secretary, Sri R.S.R. Subrahmanyam, concerning the intentions and activities of these conspirators.

However, in spite of the above, the Home Ministry revoked on Aug. 5, the ban on the entry of Tai Situpa Rinpoche, barring nine states, whilst admitting simultaneously that he is involved in anti-Indian acitivites. Ever since then Indian intelligence and security agencies have become extremely alert. According to Home Ministry sources the ban on him preventing him from entering nine states - Sikkim , J & K, Manipur, Mizoram Meghalaya, Tripura , Assam , Nagaland and Arunachal is meaningless. He cannot go into Sikkim but is permitted to move around freely in the adjacent areas of Darjeeling and Kalimpong in West Bengal .

According to reports submitted to the Home Ministry by intelligence and other agencies the conspiracy to dismember Sikkim from India is a part of that Chinese project which had been once prepared by Tai Situpa Rinpoche. In accordance with this, the history of Sikkim is being recast in Lepcha and Bhotia languages. The attempt in it is to show that the Lepcha and Bhotia peoples who were then the majority community, were happier under the rule of the Chogyal.

Politics in Sikkim is even now being controlled by the Lepcha and Bhotia peoples of Sikkim . Out of the 32 seats in the State Legislature, 13 are reserved for these peoples. Resultantly any state govt. depends on the support extended by them. Those who dream of separating Sikkim from India are desirous of having China raise the issue of Sikkimese independance in the United Nations. Tai Situpa Rinpoche has assured them that at the appropriate juncture China will do exactly that. Here it needs to be emphasised that until now China has not recognised Sikkim as an integral part of India , as also Arunachal Pradesh. Reciprocally the then Chief Minister of Sikkim Narbahadur Bhandari, had extended recognition to Urgyen Thrinlay, the person selected by Tai Situpa Rinpoche and China as the re-incarnation of the XVIth. Gyalwang Karmapa. Ever since then Narbahadur Bhandari has continued to fully support and co-operate with Tai Situpa in all his activities.

The question however arises, 'Why had the Dalai Lama, the supreme Dharmaguru of Tibetans, recognised the Chinese candidate Urgyen Thrinlay as the reincarnation of the Karmapa?' According to sources in the HOme Ministry there were a number of reasons for this, from amongst which the principal reason was that this was a political trade-off. The Dalai Lama was then awaiting a formal invitation for talks from the Chinese Govt. which it used to its own benefit. In the first week of June 1992 when he was in Rio de Janeiro attending the Earth Summit, the Chinese Govt. informed him through his elder brother Gyalo Thondup, that if the Dalai Lama was to endorse Urgyen Thrinlay, resident in Tibet, as the incarnation of the XVIth. Karmapa, then it would be possible for the Chinese Govt. to invite him to Beijing for formal talks. Excited by this proposal, the Dalai Lama had, from Rio de Janeiro , faxed his recognition of Urgyen Thrinlay as the re-incarnation of the Karmapa. In response however, the Chinese Govt. went back upon its commitment and until now the Dalai Lama continues to await this formal invitation.

Tai Situpa had also persuaded Chen Lu Aan, the then Prime Mayor of Taiwan to grant recognition to Urgyen Thrinlay. The KMT Party of Taiwan, the country which is professedly anti-Chinese, is said to be pro-mainland China .

This party is for an united China and its businessman cum political leader, Chen Lu Aan does business principally within China . According to sources in the Home Ministry, Chen Lu Aan has beein extensively funding Tai Situpa Rinpoche and other political leaders conspiring to dis-member Sikkim from India. He had even gone to Sikkim surreptitiously between Nov. 28 and Dec. 4, 1993. There he held secret discussions with Tai Situpa Rinpoche, Narbahadur Bhandari and Karma Topden. It was when reports concerning these discussions had reached New Delhi, that the Ministry of External Affairs had in its confidential letter E.W.O. # C/104/3/92-TB dtd. 20-1-94, prohibiting Chen Lu Aan from coming to India in the future.

Subsequent to the visit to Sikkim of Chen Lu Aan Tai Situpa Rinpoche had filed a case in the Supreme Court for control of the Karmapa International Buddhist Institute, KIBI, situated in south Delhi. Sri Ram Jethmalani had been his counsel in this case and had been paid handsomely to fight this case. In spite of this Tai Situpa lost this case. KIBI continues to be under the control of Zhamar Rinpoche, the immediate disciple of the Karmapa.

Home Ministry sources state that in November 1997, Tai Situpa had a 4-5 yr. boy of Chushul, near Lhasa, capital of Tibet, as the reincarnation of Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche, the Abbott of the retreat centre at Lava near Kalimpong. Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche had been one of the three trustees controlling the Dharma Chakra Center of the Karmapa in Rumtek, Sikkim. Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche was killed in a mysterious car-crash in 1991 [24-4-1992]. In Nov. 1997, Tai Situpa Rinpoche had his Secretary Ngoche Kargyay smuggle this purported reincarnation of Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche into Kalimpong through Kathmandu and had him instated at that retreat centre in Labha.

Karma Gonpo Lama and Dugo Bhotia, two previous MLA-s of Sikkim, had, at the end of July 98 submitted memoranda to HE Sri K.R.Narayanan and the Prime Minister, Sri Atal Behari Vajpayee giving details of the anti-Indian activities of Tai Situpa Rinpoche and that the prohibition on Tai Situpa Rinpoche against entering India not be lifted. They had also staged a 'dharana' [sit-in] at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.

In spite of all this the ban on Tai Situpa Rinpoche from entering India, barring the nine states mentioned above, has been revoked. The next step in Tai Situpa Rinpoche's plan is to have Urgyen Thrinlay somehow instated at the Dharma Chakra Centre of the XVIth. Karmapa in Sikkim. The Govt. of India has not extended recognition to him. Therefore this boy is currently growing up and being trained in the Peoples' Republic of China.